


Chanting in Secret Alphabets

by lucidscreamer



Series: Sky and Sea [17]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Drabble, Established Relationship, Free Verse, Husbands, Love Poems, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 20:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18818236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucidscreamer/pseuds/lucidscreamer
Summary: In the peaceful stillness of night, Yami cradles Yugi in his embrace and finds himself whispering fresh-minted verse into his husband's ear.





	Chanting in Secret Alphabets

**Author's Note:**

> started: 4/13/2019  
> finished: 4/26/2019
> 
> prompt: 78. Poem (100 YGO Themes)
> 
> Series: Sky and Sea  
> Series: 100 YGO Prompts
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the creation of Kazuki Takahashi. No ownership of the canon characters, settings, or events is claimed and none should be implied.
> 
> Original merfolk culture and lore in this series are the sole property of Lucidscreamer. Poem copyright 2002 Lucidscreamer.
> 
> NOTE: Chronologically, this follows "A Sea of Verse" and so doesn't take place after "Letters" or "Exiles". But a sequel for those is coming.

"Give your words to me," Yugi demands, and Yami's helpless to resist. He recites remembered verses -- compares Yugi to a summer's day, counts the ways he's loved. He presses pantoums into Yugi's skin, caresses him with couplets, sighs senryu and sonnets like kisses.

But borrowed words are like wading in a shallow pool, and even Yami's memory has its limits. He finds himself diving deeper into the long-suppressed well-spring of his own creativity and, like water bubbling from a new spring, he finds words welling on his tongue...

Only now he doesn't swallow them back; now, he set them free.

　

　

o0o

　

In the peaceful stillness of night, Yami cradles Yugi in his embrace and finds himself whispering fresh-minted verse into his husband's ear. Without conscious creation, the poem constructs itself, flows from his lips like a prayer, devotion lifted on his breath and rising like sweet scented smoke, passion like incense burning in adoration:

　

I want to lie  
where jasmine offers  
the night her fragrance  
and the silence of ghosts  
surrounds me.

I want you  
to taste me in moonlight:  
cinnamon, cloves,  
anise, I am  
sharp  
on the tongue  
shadowed,  
strange --  
full of promise.

I have made myself mythical,  
elusive,  
existing in rumors --  
chanting  
in secret alphabets.

 

　

 

**Author's Note:**

> The poem that Yami "creates" for Yugi is "Cryptozoology" (c) 2002 Lucidscreamer.
> 
> It seemed to fit, so I thought why not use it? 
> 
> This poem has been plagiarized before. If you've seen it elsewhere NOT credited to me, please let me know.


End file.
